Better Together: Two Women Tackle IRONMAN Florida

When two-time IRONMAN finisher and ultra-runner Caryn Lubetsky approaches the IRONMAN Florida finish line this weekend, she won’t be alone. Beside her for every stroke, pedal, and step will be Kerry Gruson, a quadriplegic and aspiring IRONMAN athlete.

Lubetsky, 44, will tow Gruson, 68, in a kayak by a line tethered to her waist for the 2.4-mile swim, attach a racing chair to the back of her bike to pedal through the 112-mile ride, and then push her through the 26.2-marathon. Gruson will have challenges to face of her own, including staying hydrated and suffering through long hours in uncomfortable positions.

If anyone can do it, it’s this team. Lubetsky is a Miami-based attorney, law professor, mother of three, nationally ranked runner, cross-country coach, member of Team CHOCOLATE MILK, and executive director of H.E.L.P. Inc., a not-for-profit that provides free legal services to indigent people living with HIV/AIDS. She has also been training 30 to 40 hours a week to bring both her and journalist Gruson’s dream in completing an IRONMAN together come true.

Through their training, the duo has also been educating and inspiring an entire fourth-grade class at Miami Country Day School. We spoke with Lubetsky (who completed IRONMAN Florianópolis Brazil in 2013 and IRONMAN Frankfurt Germany in 2014) to get Gruson’s story and her thoughts on the upcoming big day.

IRONMAN.com: How did you meet Kerry and what inspired you to work with her?

Caryn Lubetsky: I met Kerry two years ago when she was looking for a team to help her complete a nine-mile swim called Open Water Swim for Alligator Lighthouse. We did that together, and I was just completely in awe of her spirit, her outlook on life, and the fact that she was living life to her ability, not to her disability.

Kerry is a Harvard-educated journalist who has worked for The New York Times and the Miami Herald. When she was 26, she was in Hawaii interviewing Vietnam vets, including a U.S. Army Green Beret who had been held as a prisoner of war. During the interview, he had a flashback and jumped across the table and strangled her. The loss of oxygen left her paralyzed. She has no anger, no animosity — she thinks they were both victims of the war.

What inspired the commitment to IRONMAN Florida?

The director of the Miami Country Day School, where my three children (Brady, 7, Merritt, 9, Davis, 11) attend, was at the open-water swim. She saw Kerry and the impact we had on the entire crowd and wanted Kerry to speak at the school. Her vocal chords are damaged, so she speaks with me and through me.

When the students first met her, they were shy and scared, but in a short time, they were enthralled and moved by her. It became this amazing, transforming experience. We wanted to take it to the next level.

Kerry said she wanted to do an IRONMAN, and the director made it a school project. So, we’ve done a lot of parallel training on campus. I’ve pulled Kerry in a kayak in the pool and swim with the students twice a week. The school bought them bikes and they’ve been biking and running. It gets even better—they have applied physics and math lessons toward helping us make Kerry’s equipment more streamlined. On November 2, they are sending us off with a mini triathlon led by Kerry and I.

Many of the students will be coming to Panama City Beach, and teachers are going to volunteer. IRONMAN has designated several places for the kids to watch. The children have been transformed—they look at life differently, they see people for people and don’t judge on appearances anymore.

How did you get involved in Team CHOCOLATE MILK?

Through a teammate—I applied and they chose me. I’ve been on the team about a year, and they are the most incredible sponsor anyone can ask for. I went to them and told them this crazy idea. I didn’t even finish my sentence and they told me to register that day and paid for our entries—they never batted an eye.

They wholeheartedly support enabling the athlete within. I love being a chocolate milk ambassador because low-fat chocolate milk is a natural source of high-quality protein, and I always use it for recovery. Because of an ideal balance of protein and carbs, I truly believe that since I have started recovering with chocolate milk, I have been able to train harder and smarter.

Aside from intense training, what hurdles have you had to overcome?

I was mainly focused on running this year and just ran the Berlin Marathon, so I’m really not in biking shape and have been training on a CompuTrainer with the tension as high as it can go. I’m terrified of the 17-hour deadline.

We also have to focus on Kerry—we can’t verbally communicate, so we use hand signals (she can partially lift one arm). Fueling is also difficult. We have rigged a CamelBak filled with liquid calories, and tie the long chord of the CamelBak to her hands so she can raise it to her mouth and sip on it. We’ll also give her a banana in transition, and practiced at IRONMAN 70.3 Miami on Oct. 25. If I’m stressed for time, we will stress together.

My son fell off of the monkey bars at school last week and had to have surgery, and that has been hard on my training. But the minute he got back to school, with pins in his elbow, students started coming up with ideas on how to help him get through the mini-triathlon. Instead of saying, "I’m sorry," it was, "Here’s how we’ll figure it out." We have really used triathlon and IRONMAN’s "Anything Is Possible" slogan as a metaphor for life. They realize that sport is a part of life and life is a part of sport.

What will your thoughts be as you near the IRONMAN Florida finish line?

It has been an incredible journey. It has been my husband, me, Kerry and the entire school. I’m most looking forward to the fourth-graders on the course—they will give us the strength to push through. It’s hard for Kerry to be in those positions for so long. When I cross that finish line, it will be the greatest accomplishment of my life. Having my children there, and knowing that I am teaching them to look at people for who they are—and not who they think they are—and that if you put your mind to it, anything is possible … that’s the greatest gift I can give them.

Jessica Elliott is a Dallas-based freelance writer and IRONMAN athlete.